High-Speed VCSEL-Based Transceiver for 200 GbE Short-Reach Intra-Datacenter Optical Interconnects
by
Giannis Kanakis 1,*
, Nikos Iliadis 1, Wouter Soenen 2, Bart Moeneclaey 2, Nikolaos Argyris 3, Dimitrios Kalavrouziotis 3, Silvia Spiga 4, Paraskevas Bakopoulos 3 and Hercules Avramopoulos 1
Giannis Kanakis 1,*, Nikos Iliadis 1, Wouter Soenen 2, Bart Moeneclaey 2, Nikolaos Argyris 3, Dimitrios Kalavrouziotis 3, Silvia Spiga 4, Paraskevas Bakopoulos 3 and Hercules Avramopoulos 1
1
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Iroon Polytechniou Str., 15780 Athens, Greece
2
IDLab, Department of Information Technology, Ghent University/IMEC, 9052 Ghent, Belgium
3
Mellanox Technologies Ltd., Hakidma 26, 2069200 Yokneam, Israel
4
Walter Schottky Institut, TU München, Am Coulombwall 4, D-85748 Garching, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Appl. Sci. 2019, 9(12), 2488; https://doi.org/10.3390/app9122488
Received: 13 April 2019 / Revised: 12 June 2019 / Accepted: 13 June 2019 / Published: 18 June 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue PICs for Optical Interconnects)
The soaring demand for higher speeds in datacenters to address the relentless growth of the global IP traffic places optical interconnects in the spotlight. In this manuscript, we present a high-speed optical transceiver for intra-datacenter connectivity. The transceiver is based on single-mode, single-polarization high-speed vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), a VCSEL driver chip, and a linear receiver. Following a step-by-step approach, we present the architectures, assembly processes, and experimental results from the different modules. More specifically, we demonstrate (1) a data transmission experiment at 80 Gb/s using PAM-4 (four-level Pulse Amplitude Modulation) modulation for a reach of up to 500 m by employing a single-mode VCSEL module, and (2) a full-link experiment proving up to 64 Gb/s per lane capacity using PAM-4 signaling of the VCSEL-based optical transceiver test vehicles in back-to-back configuration and up to 56 Gb/s for 500 m and 2 km transmission distances. The acquired experimental results verify the suitability of the optical transceiver for intra-datacenter interconnects’ applications.
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Keywords:
short-reach optical interconnects; intra-datacenter connectivity; VCSEL-based transmitter; VCSEL; linear receiver; high-speed optical transceiver; 200 GbE applications
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MDPI and ACS Style
Kanakis, G.; Iliadis, N.; Soenen, W.; Moeneclaey, B.; Argyris, N.; Kalavrouziotis, D.; Spiga, S.; Bakopoulos, P.; Avramopoulos, H. High-Speed VCSEL-Based Transceiver for 200 GbE Short-Reach Intra-Datacenter Optical Interconnects. Appl. Sci. 2019, 9, 2488.
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